Mike,
   Thanks for explaining in more detail. I wanted to write a brief message so did not go into all the details.I was trying to counter Doug's statement that you can just install a BWC excel-s and ignore it. 

   I have stated many times in other places that BWC has a great warranty and BWC stands behind it. BWC treated me very well indeed, no complaints!

   At Alfred Univ., NY, no one monitors the inverter so most of the time it is off line because it needs a reset. No one cares there! One of your customers in California ignored the inverter and it failed for some reason and started drawing power out of the grid. She ended up with a power bill for several thousand dollars...an expensive mistake. I know about this because the well-intended retired-engineer neighbor contacted asking what a fault codes meant. I stressed to him several times that he should not fool around with the inverter but call the installer or BWC. But he kept playing with the inverter! Did you every get a call? Also BWC and installers have told me that it is a good idea to furl the turbine if you expect high winds. So, again, you can not ignore the turbine. You have to watch the weather and take corrective action. In my case I am not always on site to furl, so I rely on my remote reset and webcam that tell me when I need to reset.

   I have to admit I do not know the age of the old Excels generators I see in NY every time I cross Lake Champlain by ferry. I did visit the rural homes before I bought my BWC turbine. The fact that they were not working did not deter me from buying one. My intent is the maintain them. As an owner of the BCE turbine, you have to check twice a day...about as much work as keeping pet fish. But you can't ignore the turbine, because like pet fish, the turbine might 'die'.  But unlike fish, when the trubine dies it can cost you lots of money.

--Mel

Mel Tyree, BA PhD (Cantab.) LLD (h.c.) FRSC Professor Department of Renewable Resources
444 Earth Sciences Building
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB, Canada
T6G 2E3
780-492-5597 (Office)
780-902-6771 (Home)
518-594-3815 (Mobile)

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Bergey [mailto:mbergey@...]
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 9:15 AM
To: Tyree, Mel; small-wind-home@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [s-w-h] Bergey maintenance and other corrections

Mel,

The Bergey Excel 10 kW does not require annual maintenance. You have that wrong. The leading edge tape will go over ten years at most sites unless we have some sort of a quality control issue or a hail storm. We recommend an inspection every two years. But, there is no scheduled maintenance. FYI, we just increased the warranty on our 10 kW turbine to 10 years - a first in the wind industry.

Concerning the two downed turbines you cite, you know that the failure of your unit was due to faulty blades and that we gave you a complete new turbine and paid you for lost production. The other major failure was solely due to faulty installation, which resulted in a collapse of the tower. Ask Roy Butler. The dealer was slow and evasive and we finally stepped in and replaced the complete system on our dime. To date we have not been able collect a penny from our ex-dealer (a NYSERDA Eligible Installer at the time!).

Concerning the two non-functioning Excels you mentioned I have no specific information. However, there are broken and abandoned Excels out there.

Typically, they are over 25 years old and the original dealer is long gone.
For about 15 years there was virtually no one interested in doing field work on small wind turbines in many parts of the country. Quite a few of those orphaned units have been sold, fixed, and reinstalled. There are also many new dealers that are willing to assist the owners of these derelict units and nurse them back into operation. We have assisted in dozens of such rebuilds over the years.

Mike Bergey
President
Bergey Windpower Co.
2200 Industrial Blvd.
Norman, OK 73069
  Tel: 405-364-4212
  Fax: 405-364-2078
  E-mail: mbergey@...
  Web: www.bergey.com

-----Original Message-----
From: small-wind-home@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:small-wind-home@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of meltyree1
Sent: Sunday, June 21, 2009 8:19 AM
To: small-wind-home@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [s-w-h] Re: Do you have any opinion on the Ventera 10kw?
www.venteraenergy.com

Doug,
   Sorry, I didn't notice your message, but Nando answered you; it is a job for the manufacturer. An automatic reset is not a science problems. The science 'how to do it' is there. It is a technology problem. If BWC wants to fix it then it can. For my case I installed a remote reset; I travel a lot but don't want to loose too much energy so I use a computer to check the status of my turbine twice a day and do a remote manual reset when needed that way I reduce my energy loss to just 20 to 24%. The remote reset is described in SWIEP R#39.

http://www.ualberta.ca/~mtyree/SWIEP/Publications.html
   The BWC Excel-s does require annual service. The blades need patching annually. My installer comes around once a year to do that. The outer layers of the blade wear down and peal off with time. Also Excel-s turbines are not "set-it-and-forget-it" in NY State. I know of two machines that crashed to the ground (mine is one) and I know two other machines that stopped working because they have not been serviced (they don't turn in the wind any more).

--Mel
--- In small-wind-home@yahoogroups.com, "dougselsam" <doug@...> wrote:
>
> Mel:
> Out of 127 Bergey 10 kW machines installed locally by the Guasti's in
SoCal, 127 are running, so I was told.  Brent S. of Windtesting.com has had a Whisper H-40 up for many years without checking it, during which time it never had a problem besides a burnt diode or 2.  When I say "set-it-and-forget-it", I mean no annual lubrication.  Why?  You gotta either climb the tower or drop the turbine once a year?  Easy if you are a pro - daunting for the casual owner:  That is not set-and-forget.  That is more like "Yeah I was supposed to lubricate the gearbox but we had a wedding to go to and now my uncle is in the hospital..."

> What happens when someone doesn't do the prescribed maintenance?
Meanwhile, has science figured out how to do an automatic reset yet?
> :)
> D.S.
> with wind energy you never run out of problems to solve!
>
> --- In small-wind-home@yahoogroups.com, "meltyree1" <mel.tyree@> wrote:
> >
> > Re: Doug's account below:
> >    This is a very useful story. To this list of "reliable turbines"
(based on long experience) I think we can add the Jacobs. Jacobs turbines were being installed on farms before electricity from the grid came to farms. Some reconditioned 50-year-old Jacobs are still in service (see Home Power Magazine). You can still buy the Jacobs and assuming it is fabricated today to the same standards as the past then it will be reliable. For all turbines we have to hope the fabrication standards are maintained each production year.

> >    Doug says: 'I would recommend: A Whisper 100 from SWWP, and a
> > Bergey
Excel 10 kW. Those are the only models I have seen are basically "set-it-and-forget-it",...'
> > I don't think you can characterize any turbine as 'set-it-and-forget-it"
The Jacobs need an annual grease job of the gear box, the SWWP units need to be furled when it gets too windy, and the Excel will stop producing power if you ignore it because it needs manual resets when it overloads the inverter.

> >     All turbines last longer if annually serviced.
> > --Mel
> >

Mel Tyree, BA PhD (Cantab.) LLD (h.c.) FRSC
Professor
Department of Renewable Resources
444 Earth Sciences Building
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB, Canada
T6G 2E3
780-492-5597 (Office)
780-902-6771 (Home)
518-594-3815 (Mobile)